#itapagipe

Town scene on the Itapagipe Peninsula, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Tuesday 5th May

NEOJIBA is based on the El Sistema model from Venuzuela. An important feature of El Sistema is what are called the nucleos.

Nucleos are satellite music centres, situated within communities to work with the local children of that area. The idea is that the nucleos provide local provision and support within the community itself but also that the children, over time, can feed into the central music groups as they progress.

All the nucleos in NEOJIBA are delivered through a partnership with a school. Home schooling is illegal in Brazil and pupils are mostly only required to attend a half day, either in the morning or the afternoon. The legal requirement for school attendance is between the ages of 5-17 years. However, this is far from reality for many Brazilian young people. I'm told that the school system in Brazil faces huge challenges, teaching is poor and school environments can be a haven for drug trafficking. Attending university is not necessarily the same as in the UK. The degree level tends to be much lower and universities offer patchy provision with no real benchmarks in place.

However, there are things that are being done to combat these challenges. Around 11 years ago, after 'Lula' was sworn in as president of Brazil in 2003 he established a programme called Bolsa Família. This was a new welfare system for the poorest families in Brazil. The welfare was given directly to the family (usually the mother) but only if the children went to school and received all their vaccines. I am told it empowered a huge number of communities, particularly in rural parts of Brazil, where the additional money helped to kick start the local economy. The programme was also successful in empowering women and consequently reducing domestic abuse cases.

Today I'm off to visit two nucleo centres in different areas of Salvador to observe some of the lessons, meet the coordinators and see some different areas of Salvador. There is quite a large group of us visiting the first centre which is about a 50 min drive north in a different town called Simoes Filho.

As I've mentioned, the majority of music teachers for the nucleos are all current members of the central youth orchestra. Catching a lift with us is Everton, the percussion teacher, and Manuel who is volunteering with NEOJIBA for a month. Manuel is a professional orchestral percussionist originally from Spain but working for the last four years in Germany.

NEOJIBA regularly hosts a number of student placements and professional volunteers. In fact, it seems they have a constant stream of volunteers and apprentices wishing to come and learn about the programme and the organisation has a number of strategic academic partners who send students over every year.

Fabien is also one of our party, he is from France with a masters in music pedagogy. This is his third placement with NEOJIBA and on this 3 month visit he is helping to collect feedback from the different centres, observe teaching and assist NEOJIBAs pedagogical director Obadias.

We set off in two taxis and its not long before we are in a very different part of the city. I can see a number of favelas clinging to the hill sides and you suddenly realise where the majority of Salvador's inhabitants live. We continue to head north on a straight road away from the city. We pass a number of factories and industrial parks with dark patches of jungle in-between. A couple of weeks ago Salvador was reminded of the harsh reality of the living conditions in the Favelas. The city received an unusual and devastating amount of rain which caused a number of landslides; 17 people were killed including four children.

The nucleo in Simoes Filho is situated within a school complex called CESA - Centro Educacional Santo Antonio which was set up and is run by a foundation called Obras Socials Irma Dulce. Irma Dulche was Brazil's version of Mother Theresa, a Catholic sister, who made it her mission to set up community and health programmes amongst the poor population in Salvador (although she is a celebrated figure across Brazil). She died in 1992.

The buildings are clean but pretty run down and I remember how lucky we are with all our shiny, new-build schools back home. I'm told that this school ends at 14 years despite the statutory age being 17. I ask why:

'The school only has a limited amount of recourses and they have decided they want to concentrate on ages 5-14. Once the pupils reach 14 they must find another school in the area.'

NEOJIBA have a partnership with the school who donated two buildings over to the music centre. NEOJIBA works with nearly 280 children in this centre through the delivery of percussion, string orchestras and choirs.

The main building where the orchestra and choir rehearse consists of a larger room and two smaller teaching rooms. The last room acts as an instrument store, and there is also a small office. I'm told the building was a former orthopaedic centre and needed a lot of renovation work when NEOJIBA first arrived.

We meet Leila the coordinator here. Like the music teachers, the coordinators are also current or ex-members of the youth orchestra. Many have decided to give up membership of the orchestra to instead concentrate on their roles in their centres.

When we arrive a small chamber string orchestra is warming up with some singing to begin their 2 hour 30 minute rehearsal. It's a mixed age, mixed ability group and initially, I'm confused as some of the young people look older than 14… 'The pupils stay on at the school if they haven't reached the required academic level' I'm told.

I spot a chord chart on the wall with some sol fa symbols underneath. 'Do all the teachers use the solfège method to teach?' I ask Fabien. 'Some but mostly not.' I'm told. 

Fabien is passionate about NEOJIBA and tells me he would really like to see a level of standardisation in terms of teaching across all the centres but there are huge challenges and these things take time.

After observing the orchestra for a while we can hear the percussion lesson starting up from another location. I's pretty loud, and so we go and investigate. Everton and Manuel are in full flow with the young people. Again the group is a mix of ages and abilities. They rehearse in a covered veranda outside the building, as we arrive the rain begins to pour.

Cutting off the school at 14 years causes a bit of a problem for NEOJIBA as it's hard for the orchestral players to reach a good enough level of musical ability to feed into the central groups and so the organisation loses contact with them after they leave the school. The percussion lessons were set up to offer an alternative to the orchestra for those young people who didn't want to commit to a stringed instrument.

It's a very musical lesson, everyone is engaged, and Everton teaches mainly by demonstrating while Manuel stands amongst the young people supporting and correcting when they get lost.

'These kids are very challenging' explains Manuel on our journey back to the city centre. 'It took Alberto a long time to gain their trust and respect and they can be difficult with me still. He (Everton) is really great with them though.'

Everton also teaches in another social development programme on Saturday mornings though this time through offering Capoeira. (Capoeira is huge in Brazil, especially Salvador).

Just before we leave we have a quick tour of the school and the music teachers go in and say hello to two new classes of 6-8 year olds who they will soon be teaching.

'It took a long time for many of the teachers here to value the music and our programme' says Leila, 'and it's always a struggle with space, but we are definitely making progress.'

The second visit is to the neighbourhood of Itapagipe which is a peninsula in Salvador. This centre (SESI) and school location is very different to what we visited in the morning. Lessons take place in a beautiful old building and the facilities seem much better - I'm told the partner school is a kind of 'national school' and so has more resource. For example it is the school who pays for the instruments here.

I don't know enough about the area to understand the different backgrounds of the children yet but I think Itapagipe is one of the nicer neighbourhoods in Salvador. SESI was the first nucleo that NEOJIBA established and at the last round of auditions 25 young musicians from SESI were successful in gaining a place in the OCA orchestra. Here they also concentrate on strings and start working with the children from around 5/6 years in what they call the initiation period. Initiation focusses on introducing the children to the different instruments and aims to get them feeling comfortable with the teachers and in their new musical environment. After about 6 months they received their instruments.

When we arrive there is around 50 six year olds in the main hall. They are being shown some videos on a screen and a number of musicians are there to play live and introduce their instruments to the children. The kids are sitting on chairs in rows but the ones at the back are quite restless which is a shame. Discipline seems to be a real challenge - but I guess it will always be hard with 50 excitable six year olds!

We also have a quick look into a viola class - six pupils aged around 9/10 who are woking on scales - and a violin class of around 35 players who are still on open strings . This centre caters for around 280 children and also has a separate programme for children with Special Education Needs and Disabilities.

 A quick ice cream with Renata and, as we're in the area, a visit to the tip of the peninsula to watch the famous Salvador sunset.